Leader: Why public support for ID cards is falling

The government looks set to continue its attempts to steamroller its ID cards legislation through parliament this week, despite evidence that public support for the controversial scheme is collapsing as people - albeit belatedly - begin to realise the flaws in the plans.

A poll of almost 600 silicon.com readers this week shows a dramatic shift in support for the scheme. Back in 2004, 60 per cent favoured ID cards but now 80 per cent oppose the scheme.

The government, unsurprisingly, claims it has successfully made the case for ID cards after MPs voted by a narrow margin in the House of Commons to overturn amendments made by the House of Lords that would have derailed the ID cards bill.

But then why do peers in the Lords continue to oppose key parts of the bill? And why has public opinion appear to have shifted so dramatically against ID cards in recent weeks and months?

The government's line that ID cards will help tackle terrorism, ID fraud, illegal immigration and just about every one of society's ills simply no longer washes with the general public. They've started to wake up to the technical complexity - and many say infeasibility - of a central national identity database, considering the amount of personal information that will be stored on it and the privacy implications of that.

Throughout the ID cards process, instead of directly answering questions about the scheme, the government's response, more often than not, has been to simply rubbish the critics and shout them down like crude school playground bullies.

That approach might be fit for the 'yah-boo' culture on the floor of the House of Commons but it doesn't wash with the man and woman in the street who are increasingly recognising they will be left to foot the bill for this dog's dinner of a scheme. The London School of Economics now reckons there is a £1.8bn black hole in the Home Office ID card figures before the scheme has even got off the ground.

Labour MP Lynne Jones has also this week hit out at Home Office criticisms of her claims that the government is using misleading statements and sleight of hand to push ID cards through parliament.

In a detailed letter to Home Office minister Andy Burnham, Jones carefully deconstructs the government's whole case for ID cards piece by piece, highlighting ministers' failure to answer legitimate questions and various "misleading statements" about the cost and benefits of the scheme.

If the government wants an answer as to why more and more people are openly turning against its ID card plans, it should look no further than the famous quote by Abraham Lincoln who, ironically, was actually criticised over his suppression of civil liberties during the American Civil War.

He said: "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time." Not that we should expect the government to stop trying.